Coyote Wall Hike

Overview

The great quintet of hikes on the Washington side of the Gorge includes Hamilton Mountain, Table Mountain, Dog Mountain, Catherine Creek and Coyote Wall. The latter is the most recent addition to the popularity index although Coyote Wall has been a mecca for mountain bikers going back over three decades now. Hikers discovered it in the early 1990s and began to arrive in droves on the unofficial trails around and on the massive anticline of columnar basalt. They came for the expansive views, the grassy slopes and oak woodlands, as well as to enjoy, in season, the dazzling display of wildflowers - never mind the odd tick and rattlesnake. For better or worse, the "trailhead" on Courtney Road filled up by 10:00 a.m. on a balmy spring weekend morning. The Forest Service set up a plan to regulate the area, and a brand new trailhead was constructed above Locke Lake. Access to the "Coyote Canyon" area and its trails has been closed, and official trail construction was completed in the Coyote Wall area in 2017. The loop described here takes you up along the western edge of the Labyrinth, over to the magnificent syncline wall, and then up along it into oak/Douglas-fir woods to do a short loop back and drop down the rim once more. Coming down Coyote Wall, taking in expansive vistas every step of the way, is the just reward for slogging all the way up. Dogs must be on leash, year-round on some trails and for half the year on others: there are ground-nesting birds in this area. This hike begins at the new Coyote Wall Trailhead. The old Coyote Canyon Trail is to the right here but DO NOT venture up it as you will stray onto private land. Continue straight on the paved road surface, which is old Highway 8, the main highway up the Washington side of the Gorge in an earlier era. To your right, you'll see Locke Lake and also pass several boulders that have fallen from the wall on to the roadway. It's pretty obvious why they relocated the highway away from the cliffs! The old road rounds the end of the wall and continues straigh

Trail Stats

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